The Thoughts of a Caged Animal
by EmpathNaga
Summary: Oneshot about what Ryan Kuhn, aka The Jackal thinks of all the other spirits. Premovie. Rated for mentions of things in the spirits' life stories little kiddies shouldn't know about. R&R if you wish


AN: I'm not making any complaints, but why does Jackal seem to be everyone's favorite next to Angry Princess?

Disclaimer: Oh, how I _WISH_ I owned this, but I don't.

Ryan Kuhn was a spirit now. A trapped spirit inside a glass hell house. The people that trapped him there called him The Jackal. He hated that. 'The Jackal?' What was Jackal-like about him? He was a dog-like person because of his constant pursuit of women, sure. But that's where the similarities ended.

He was also known as quote, "The sign of Hell's winter" end quote, but that made no sense whatsoever. Hell wasn't proven to be hot at all. The Bible stated that that was where souls went after they died and sinned greatly. They were then tortured for their sins. No fire. It could've been perpetual winter in Hell for all he knew. As a matter of fact, there was no proof Hell even existed in the first place. Well, a Hell other than the one he was in now.

Ryan had been there for what seemed like forever. He had a lot of time to think. He was actually one of the smartest of the ghosts. He just had a problem when it came to women. He spent his days like he did in that insane asylum he admitted himself into. Just sat there. Quietly. Never really did anything other than cringe at humans. Just observed the other ghosts and thought.

The First Born Son was pathetic. He would constantly play his little childhood games in his cell. Who knows what the Indian wannabe thought as he played. Probably thought he was a real Indian. Ha. That actually made Ryan want to smirk. Something that didn't happen too often. He had a _thing_ about children. Not a bad thing, per se, but just… a thing.

The Torso was – Even as far as Ryan went – creepy! He just sat around sleeping actually, but looking at that bare neck, and the human pipes that ran through them – ugh! Even worse, sometimes blood would spatter out of his neck, and that made him want to vomit. Actually he would've if he could.

Then there was the Bound Whore - -I mean The Bound Woman! Heh. She was about as sensitive with men as a cat with its prey. She would sometimes dance around her cell like she was still at that prom. She would do a lot of what he called Spectral Stepping. It was almost teleportation, but it was really just moving very quickly. Every now and then as she slept she would position her body on the ceiling like she'd been hung. And her laugh… She was a weird one all right.

The Withered Lover: She was the one Ryan pitied most amongst all the others. Even if he killed women he still respected her enough to call her 'Jean.' They all did, but he didn't know it. She died for nothing. She was trapped in a huge fire that burned her so badly that she was rushed into St. Luke's Hospital's ER. That poor woman was actually nice, even in death. Whenever she saw him looking at her she would always smile sweetly, and wave at him. He just nodded back.

Then there was The Torn Prince. He was a narcissistic ball player who would sometimes practice his game with that steel bat of his. It was useless, of course. He would never be able to hit another ball and prove he was better at something than others for a while. Ryan often wondered if he realized that. Probably not. He also wondered what he would think if he only realized that sometime in the near future.

Then there was one he couldn't see too well, but he had heard the story of. Her name was The Angry Princess. Her cell was covered –and I mean COVERED – in blood. Apparently it was hers. Ryan heard that she attempted to perform surgery on herself, and it ended in her being blind in one eye. Still, she was considered 'as beautiful in death as she was in life.' Even with the myriad of impossibly large scars he had managed to get glimpses of. She was The Torn Price's perfect match in terms of vainity.

Next on the list was The Pilgrimess. Poor old coot. She was stuck in those stocks for eternity. Ryan might have had a heavy cage on his head, but at least he was able to move around freely. She was stuck in the same position forever. There were even spider webs on her in some places. And Ryan could have sworn he saw a spider crawl out of her ear one time. Poor woman. Although, weather or not she WAS a witch like some thought when she was alive, he knew not.

Then there was the weirdest of the weird: The Great Child. Ryan had read about people like him when he was trying to figure out what was wrong with himself. He suffered from something called Infantilism. It's when a grown man acts like an infant for whatever reason. Perhaps they can't do otherwise, like him, or they had trauma with their parents. That always seemed to be a stressor. Not a problem with Harold. If you get between him and his mommy…Ryan didn't want to think about it. Even Juggernaut acted slightly afraid of him when he got angry.

Then there was his aforementioned mommy - - The Dire Mother. The girl-like woman only stood at three feet, and always had to sit on Harold to feed him his baby food. She constantly smothered him with attention and love, spoiling him and absolving him of responsibility. It honestly made Ryan want to hurl again. Even more than the spit-up on Harold's bib. At least his captors were nice enough to them to give them a chair. But if you got them separated, Harold actually looked like he could tear down one of the inscribed walls!

Then there were the three badasses. Himself included. One of the other two was The Hammer. He was also pitiable. He was charged falsely with stealing from a white man. And this was a while ago when several things were still taboo. The blacksmith was simply coming home to his family and found them hanging from nooses. After that he avenged his family, and was killed like he was a monster. Plus the people had driven spike-like nails deep into his flesh. AND cut off his hand to boot! Poor man. He only knew violence, kinda like Ryan. He was stuck in a murderous rage forever.

There was Ryan, The Jackal. He didn't really have to observe himself much, did he? There wasn't that could be said about him anyway. He just sat with his back against a wall, and if he saw a human he just looked at them for a few seconds, then went back to staring off into space. But…if that door ever opened…

Lastly there was The Juggernaut. He was an enigma if Ryan ever saw one. Apparently since he was 'The new guy' he would constantly try to get out of his prison. Like that was going to happen. He was a serial killer in life who literally broke every bone in his victim's bodies. He seemed to get his strength from his deformed muscles, and from the fact that he worked in a junkyard and chopped the cars up. Although...if he ever looked at Ryan when he was looking at him he wouldn't make threatening movements towards him like the others…perhaps he already knew it would do no good.

Yeah. All the ghosts had their own little stories. And by the looks of things, they all had different ways of coping with being locked up in this glass Hell.

Wait a sec…what's the power guy doing here?

The End

Tell me what you thought, and if I should keep writing.

-Thorn


End file.
